Hopeful of launching Covovax for adults in October this year, for children in Q1 of 2022: Adar Poonawalla

Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla has said he is hopeful that Covovax another Covid19 vaccine being manufactured by his company in India will be launched in October for adults and for children by the first quarter of 2022He also thanked the government for all the support provided to Serum Institute and said the company is always trying to expand its Covishield production capacity to meet the demand Poonawalla met Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament and the meeting between the two lasted for 30 minutes The government is helping us and we are facing no financial crunch We are thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for all the cooperation and support Poonawala told PTI after his meetingWhen asked about vaccines for kids he said The Covovax vaccine for kids will be launched in the first quarter of the next year most likely in JanuaryFebruaryPoonawala said he is hopeful that for adults Covovax will be launched in October depending on DCGI approvals It will be a twodose vaccine and the price will be decided at the time of launch he added On production capacity of Covishield the vaccine being manufactured and supplied by Serum in India under a licensing agreement with Oxford and AstraZeneca he said the present capacity is 130 million doses per month and always try to increase it furtherEarlier in the day Poonawalla also met Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya The minister tweeted that he had a productive discussion on the supply of the Covishield vaccine with Poonawalla I appreciated their role in mitigating COVID19 amp assured continued Government support in ramping up vaccine production Mandaviya saidLast month an expert panel of Indias Central Drug Authority recommended granting permission to Serum Institute of India SII for conducting phase 23 trials of Covovax on children aged 2 to 17 years with certain conditions official sources had earlier said The trials would cover 920 children 460 each in the age group of 1217 and 211 across 10 sitesAlso Read Nine countries in Europe accepting Covishield for travel SourcesThe Punebased pharmaceutical company had submitted a revised protocol for inclusion of pediatric cohort in the ongoing Covovax phase 2 and 3 observerblind randomised controlled study in Indian adults aged 18 years and above to determine the safety and immunogenicity of the jab In the revised application SII director government and regulatory affairs Prakash Kumar Singh and director Dr Prasad Kulkarni had stated that globally all adults aged 18 and above are being vaccinated and after this population is protected against Covidl9 children will remain the most susceptible groupCurrently only those who are 18 or above are eligible for vaccination against the coronavirus The SII is learnt to have informed that their collaborator Novavax Inc US has already generated a large amount of data in adults in different countries and that the safety efficacy and immunogenicity data on the Novavax CovidI9 vaccine are very robust which includes a safety database of more than 50000 adults with data from Australia South Africa UK and USA and preliminary safety data in 2248 childrenFurther in the ongoing Phase 23 study in India more than 1400 participants have received at least first dose of the vaccine with no safety concerns reported so far the application stated This will ensure that a lifesaving vaccine can be brought at the earliest for our pediatric population also in addition to the adult population immediately after the grant of Emergency Use AuthorisationThe SEC on June 30 had recommended against granting permission to SII for conducting phase 2 and 3 trials of Covovax on children aged 2 to 17 years following which the company had submitted a revised study protocol last week In August 2020 USbased vaccine maker Novavax Inc had announced a licence agreement with SII for the development and commercialisation of NVXCoV2373 its Covid19 vaccine candidate in low and middleincome countries and IndiaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever